A Beautiful Disaster

I was reading through some of my older posts this week and I came across a picture of my garden area from early spring.  The area looked so barren to me compared to the way it looks now.

This picture was taken in May.  At this point in the season I had a couple of established cold tolerant crops like onions and garlic.  Most of the other beds had just been or were soon to be planted.

A little father along in the season, the beds were filling in.  I seemed to have had enough time here to keep up with weeds and trellising in most of the beds, though I will admit that this was the time in the season that pulling weeds began to slip father down in the order of things that needed to get done.

Looking the other direction up this side of the garden you can see that each garden bed was brimming over with vegetation.

Now in the early fall my neglect has become apparent.  Some of my main pathways have become lost under the cover of weeds as the main focus of my gardening became harvesting.  I am spending enough time now harvesting and processing my crops for storage that I don't have the time or energy to fight the weeds any longer.

 This picture is the same view as the very first picture from early spring.  It doesn't even remotely resemble the blank slate that was my spring garden.  Most of my garden beds have plenty of weeds in them, but the crops are growing so strongly that I am not worried about weeding the beds.  When I find time along the way I might pull a couple of the larger weeds that have grown up in the paths between the beds, but most of the garden clean up will have to wait until after the first frost.

There are a few clear areas despite my neglect.  The onion beds were weeded very well when I harvested them, so that is one area that still looks like it is under control.  The bed that held my volunteer potatoes also looks pretty good, since I have dug up most of that bed too.  One by one the beds will return to their empty state as the weather turns to autumn and the crops are harvested.  Until then I will continue to reap the benefits of my hard work and fill my freezers and pantry shelves with delicious fresh bounty grown right in my front yard.